Török Gyöngyi: Gothic Panel Paintings and Wood Carvings in Hungary, Permanent exhibition of the Hungarian National Gallery (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2005/3)

Ground-floor - Rooms 1-5

G KO U N I) -FLOOR The first groundfloor room of the exhibition is connected to the 1 ith century chapel, which dales from the Angevin era of the medieval royal palace (now belonging to the Budapest Historical Museum). The windows ol the room lacing south look clown upon this lower chapel, which King Matthias Corvinus extended with an upper chapel consecrated to St John the Almsgiver in the 15th century. From this chapel one could access two rooms of the famous Bibliotheca Corviniana. The few surviving specimens of 1 uh century wood caning are on display in this room. Outstanding among them are two Madonna statues from the Szepes region, the so-called first Madonna of Toporc and the Virgin and Child from Sxlalvin. The Virgin in the axis of the exhibition is the earlier one dating from the 1340s. Its stocky figure, tender smile and slightly curving "S" line are reminiscent of the stone Virgins of earlier French cathedrals. Yet the Master of the First Virgin from Toporc developed an individual style the characteristic features ot which can be discerned in several other Virgin statties in the Szepes region and which also influenced sculpture in the adjacent Polish areas. The tall, slender figure of the Virgin ol Szlatvin, caned between 1570 and 1380, is a unique example of another French type. Its ethereal slimness and disproportionately elongated figure, as well as the modelling of the drapery folds are reminiscent of the Silesian Virgins standing on lions. The artist is most probably identical with the sculptor of the apostle figures that once adorned one of the early altarpieces of the church and survived in the superstructure of the high altar of St lames' church in Lőcse. As very few of the small lath century home altars for preserving relics are known, the two wings of a triptych from Kassa are of considerable importance. The inner sides of the wings are adorned with a lath century relief of the Annunciation, the reverse sides show paintings renewed in the 1430s. In the upper part of the wings there are relic-holding compartments with banderols alluding to the lost relics.